It can be a difficult time of year for many people. While holiday movies portray happy families and festive get-togethers, it can leave many of us feeling left out if we don’t have the ‘perfect’ holiday experience.

Abuse, loss of a loved one, comments about your weight, divorce, missing loved ones due to Covid-19 restrictions, eating disorders, pressure to drink alcohol, are all situations that can make people uncomfortable and dread the upcoming holiday season.

To make the holiday season a bit more bearable, start with what you can control. You don’t have to say yes to every gathering (even if it is with family). In fact, saying “no” is a great example of setting clear boundaries with others and is a great way to protect your mental health. It can be freeing to not put yourself in a situation you know will be triggering.

And on that note: do some thinking around what might be triggering you. You can talk to someone you trust—or reach out to a professional—or grab your journal and l...

Today we’re sharing three common comments we hear from clients. Often, after we’ve been working with a client for a while, we begin to hear that being in therapy has proved positive in surprising ways!

1. I wish I had started taking care of my mental health sooner.

It is so easy to distract yourself from what you are really feeling—with work, your family, with food. Often it takes a big moment or event that is a tipping point for people to finally invest in supporting their mental health. It is scary to ask for help or admit that you’re not doing ok! While many wish they had started opening up sooner, you have to decide if you are ready to dig deep and start to make changes. Remember: support for your mental health doesn’t have to be formal in-person therapy; even taking small steps to support your mental health will be beneficial. You can start by setting boundaries with others, getting out for a walk regularly, or even just reading in the sunshine.

2. I wish I had known not ...

You’ve picked up a gorgeous new notebook, you have a specific pen you love the feel of. Finally, you have some quiet time to yourself, sitting down you open to that first blank page and… have no clue what to write!

We’ve previously given a few ideas on how to start journaling, but we know for ourselves that sometimes the words just won’t come. Either you’re distracted or have so much to say you don’t know where to start—both can feel overwhelming. So, here are a few ideas to get that ink flowing and fill up your pages. You don’t have to start with number one and work your way through all of the prompts, choose whichever you are called to write about. Or maybe reading one of the prompts gets you thinking about another topic you’d like to write on.

Remember: there is absolutely no wrong way to journal! Your notebook is truly your own space to be honest, vulnerable, funny, or sad.

These ideas below are to help you focus on things that are making you feel happy lately—even if you think ...

This blog post is the first in a series where we’re giving advice on tools you can try and see if they are worth adding to your ‘toolkit’ when you’re faced with emotional eating. Some tools will work for you and others you won’t find as helpful—give them a try!

The act of writing down your emotions and experiences has a lot of benefits: it can help calm your anxious mind, be an outlet for angry thoughts, or even create a happy memory for you to return to whenever you’re feeling upset. Journaling can also seem like a way of meditating: making you slow down and allowing you to focus only on yourself for a moment.

There is no on-size-fits-all to journaling (which means you can’t fail at it!) but one good way to start is to get off the digital devices—laptop, phone, tablet—that take over our days and pick-up pen and paper. Even buy yourself a notebook! Something with a quote or art on the cover that speaks to you. Some people love lined pages, others prefer ring-bound books, it is ent...

Crunch, crunch, crunch! 3 tips to reduce anger eating during COVID-19.

Feeling angry lately? How about resentful?

So many people are talking about feeling angry during this pandemic. If you feel angry but think you shouldn’t be feeling this way because a lot of people have it worse than you….well, I’m blogging today to let you know your feelings of anger are totally VALID!

Here’s why!

You are grieving so many losses and anger is part of grief. Many of us are grieving and have been for a few months now.

Here are some of the losses that may cause you to feel angry or resentful:

• You loss your social connection with friends and family
• You loss your regular routine or work
• You loss all options to keep yourself busy
• You loss the summer activities that you were looking forward to (ex; no soccer, no baseball, no ultimate Frisbee)
• You loss camping or going to your cottage
• You loss your vacation or your well-deserved summer get-away
• You loss travel
• You loss the activit
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